Is it OK to mount it so the end (head or throat) where you'll pull your last main is closer to the tensioner?

The reason would be to maybe avoid "running out of string" and having to do some kind of bridging trick. I use a gamma x-2, I don't know if this is relevant to other types of stringers.

I had an issue stringing my Wilson K Six-One Team with Mamba Supra gut, which comes in 2 20 foot coils. Some sources say the racket should have 20 feet for the mains, some say 21.

Initially I was concerned about having enough string, so I "pre-strung" the mains, and convinced myself there was enough string. It was a real hassle, though, and I felt like I'd overhandled the gut pulling it snug through the grommets multiple times. AND when I had this in a couple of weeks (I hardly ever break strings) I took it out of the bag one evening and the gut was broken up by the frame. (Crosses were synthetic gut.)

When I re-did it I figured I'd established that the string was long enough, it was a comfortable amount the first time. (I wondered a little if all the 20-foot sets of gut are exactly the same length, but I didn't want to mess with the string trying to measure it.) Turned out on one final main I had barely enough string to reach the gripper and the other one no way. I'd gotten off maybe 2 inches from centering the string when I started the mains, but, hey, if I hadn't I think both ends would have been too short. Got it done, but it wasn't much fun.

So it occurred to me that if the racket was mounted so the head (in this case) was closer to the gripper, it might have saved some hassle. I think you can decrease the reach by 2 or 3 inches by having the racket mounted "decentered."

Is this a bad thing for any reason? It changes the angle of the string from racket to gripper, didn't seem to be a problem when I tried it that way.

Sorry, didn't mean to write a novel here, but this has been puzzling me.

I guess my long first post wasn't long enough. Yes, the 2-point mount certainly will be at 12 and 6 o'clock. The 2 frame supports on the x-2 slide on a rotating bar, you slide and clamp them to fit the racket.

So it seems right to have those two supports equidistant from from the middle of the rotating bar they clamp onto. But, they can both be slid to one end or the other while having the proper spacing between them to fit the racket. So, I could mount the racket with the head (if that's where the mains finish) closer to the tensioner.

My immediate concern was working with Mamba Supra gut which comes in 2 20-foot lengths, hard to cut that more generously, but the possibly short-on-string situation comes up from time to time, right?

that is what I was saying in my earlier post. If you mains end at the head and you mount the top support near the end of the bar your racket will be mounted higher and yes that is ok but I would not do it. When you do that you will have a long string when tensioning in one direction and a shorter string when tensioning in the other direction. This will make it difficult to get the same tensions on adjacent string with a drop weight. Longer string the more the stretch and the faster the arm of the dropweiht falls.

I would buy a starting clamp and use it as a bridge.

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Everyone has the right to be stupid... it's just that some people abuse the privilege...
Balance - 31.0 cm, Weight - 358 g, SW - 346 Kgcm^2

that is what I was saying in my earlier post. If you mains end at the head and you mount the top support near the end of the bar your racket will be mounted higher and yes that is ok but I would not do it. When you do that you will have a long string when tensioning in one direction and a shorter string when tensioning in the other direction. This will make it difficult to get the same tensions on adjacent string with a drop weight. Longer string the more the stretch and the faster the arm of the dropweiht falls.

I would buy a starting clamp and use it as a bridge.

The easy, versatile and correct solution. Don't even think about anything else.

When you do that you will have a long string when tensioning in one direction and a shorter string when tensioning in the other direction. This will make it difficult to get the same tensions on adjacent string with a drop weight. Longer string the more the stretch and the faster the arm of the dropweiht falls.

Thanks, Irvin. I'm not sure I grasp the physics, but it kind of makes sense anyway. I'll have to see about a starting clamp.

Thanks, Irvin. I'm not sure I grasp the physics, but it kind of makes sense anyway. I'll have to see about a starting clamp.

It is really fairly simple. When you tighten the supports inside the frame centered on the bar the shorter the length of the head the closer the clamps will together and they will be farther from the inside of the bar. That is what I think you mean by symmetrical the geometric center of the racket is directly over the pivot point on the bar. As you rotate the racket it rotates around the center of the bar always and when the geometric center of the head coincides with that point it rotates around the center of the head. When you pull tension on the first few mains the length of string you are pulling is approximately the same length. That length is a constant plus a variable. The constant is the distance from the tensioner to the center pivot point. The variable s the distance from the pivot point to the point the end of the string is supported by the turn at the far end of the frame. As you go from the 6 & 12 o'clock positions to the 3 & 9 o'clock positions that variable gets shorter by a little each string.

Now you can mount the racket so the geometric centers of the racket's head bad the turntable bar do not coincide. Isn't this what you mean by not being symmetrical? Now the length of the constant remains the same but the variable is longer or shorter depending on the direction you pull but only on the mains. The crosses are still symmetrical since the racket is still mounted at the 6 & 12 positions.

Now suppose you mains end at the throat. If you loosen the supports on the bar (or turntable) and slide the throat farther from the pivot point by two inches you are shortening the variable section by two inches every time you pull from the throat. And the opposite is true when you pull from the head the variable is two inches longer.

This method was suggested by a stringer in RSI magazine a few years back for stringer Prince rackets. When stringing from top to bottom you want the string to always be in the bottom of the port it comes out of. But in the ports above the pivot the string wants to stay in the top of the port. So you need something (like a boomerang) to hold the string in the correct position. Anyway by sliding the racket down below the pivot more strings laid in the bottom of the ports.

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Everyone has the right to be stupid... it's just that some people abuse the privilege...
Balance - 31.0 cm, Weight - 358 g, SW - 346 Kgcm^2

Now you can mount the racket so the geometric centers of the racket's head bad the turntable bar do not coincide. Isn't this what you mean by not being symmetrical?

Yep, that's what I meant. It's just not clear to me why pulling tension on a string depends on the length of the string. I accept your statement that it does, and I appreciate your input and will not pusue what I thought might be a neat trick. I just can't say I really understand it, but that's OK, there's a lot I don't understand...women, politics, dark matter, how they can ship wine from Australia and sell it for $2 a bottle...I could go on and on. Maybe when I get a starting clamp I can also use it to stifle myself.

Maybe I confused you. If you shift the racket 2" one way it is 2" longer one way and 2" shorter the other. That means there is a 4" difference between one way and the other. Let's assume normally the length of string you pull is 20". Now it will be 22" one way and 18" the other way. The 22" string will stretch about 20% more than the 18" string because it is 20% longer. S your drop weight will not correct for this you have to do it. Therefore, on the longer string you have to lift the bar higher than you do on the shorter string.

If you had an electronic constant pulls it would adjust without you even noticing it.

__________________
Everyone has the right to be stupid... it's just that some people abuse the privilege...
Balance - 31.0 cm, Weight - 358 g, SW - 346 Kgcm^2